DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syria said on Monday it will allow observers into the country as part of an Arab League plan to end months of deadly unrest, in a turnabout which could stave off crippling regional sanctions. The Syrian government responded positively to the signing of the protocol on the dispatch of observers based on the Syrian understanding of this cooperation, foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdesi told reporters. Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had sent a message to the Arab League to that effect on Sunday night, as an Arab League deadline was set to expire, paving the way for the signing of the protocol, Makdisi said. Damascus had until now refused to sign the protocol, arguing that the text contained wording that undermined Syrian sovereignty. The international community wants monitors to be deployed in Syria to keep a check on forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who have been accused by the United Nations of rights abuses. The UN estimates that at least 4,000 people have been killed since March in Syria, where regime forces have brutally suppressed a popular revolt against Assads government. At least another 63 people were killed in violence across the country at the weekend, said human rights activists, who also reported four more deaths on Monday in the flashpoint region of Homs. Syria has asked in its message to the Arab League for minor changes which do not touch on the substance of the protocol and for clarifications that are not linked to the nature of the mission, Makdisi said. We asked them for the names and nationalities of the observers he said. We hope for a positive reply, Makdisi added. The success of this mission depends on Arab intentions. Syria insists on the terms of Article 8 of the Arab Leagues charter which stipulates that member states must respect the systems of government in other member states and avoid any action to change them, Makdisi said. Last month Syria was suspended from the 22-member Arab bloc amid mounting calls from world leaders for Assad to quit for failing to halt the bloodshed in his country. The deployment of an observer mission is part of the Leagues proposal to end the violence in Syria, which is raging on despite offers of political reforms by Assad. Sundays deadline was announced in Doha by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who also warned against the internationalisation of the Syrian crisis if Damascus did not heed the Arab call. As Arabs we fear that if the situation continues things will get out of Arab control, Sheikh Hamad said. His comments came after an Arab League ministerial panel on Saturday imposed fresh sanctions on Syria, following an initial wave of sweeping measures against the Assad regime adopted on November 27. The sanctions voted last month included an immediate freeze on transactions with Damascus and its central bank and of Syrian regime assets in Arab countries. On Saturday in Doha, the Arab panel put 19 Syrian officials on a blacklist banning them from travel to Arab countries and saying their assets would be frozen by those states. The panel also called for an embargo on the sale of Arab arms to Syria and cut by half the number of Arab flights into and out of Syria - including its national carrier Syrian Air - with effect from December 15. Syria has already been hit by a raft of EU and US sanctions and last Friday the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution strongly condemning the continued widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities. Damascus - which accuses armed terrorist groups of fuelling the unrest - rejected the resolution as unjust and said it was prepared in advance by parties hostile to Syria.